UK Cartwheel Penny 1797 - Really worn and engraved I have had this coin since I was a kid in the 1960's. It is a United Kingdom 1797 "cartwheel" two pence copper coin, 35mm diameter. It is as big as a silver dollar and probably weighs more because it is thicker. It is in coin catalogs as having been made only in 1797. My coin is really worn, the reverse "Brittania" and date are unreadable. It has some engraving across King George's head which looks like "JIG" or "JJG". Can the engraving mean anything? :smile
Willieboyd2,this piece is a Penny,not a Cartwheel 2d.The Cartwheel 2d. is a massive thing that weighs 2 ounces.In fact,the Cartwheel coins were often used as weights because the 1d. contains what was then a penny's worth of copper,& the 2d.,twopence's worth of copper. Aidan.
It's a one penny coin. I understand that the one penny coins were also used as paperweights. The engraved initials might be the shop using it as such. Or a "love token". I bought it in the mid 1960's in California, probably at a coin dealer's box of "foreign" coins. Anyway, I'm never going to sell it, it is too interesting a coin.
I say it might be a "Hate Token" - those things are huge and heavy - would make quite a nice weapon if thrown at the victim, whose initials are probably carved in the coin. Anyway, I always wanetd a nice copy of the larger 2 pence. I finally got one on eBay for 30 or 35$. They are tough to find with no rim damage. Mine was in very nice (VF or so) condition, chocolate brown, with no rim dings. They are nice coins.
That coin's in less than poor condition (on UK grading scale). Yes, I would say as some form of love token. I've seen James the second halfcrowns and bank of england dollars with similar inscriptions J&J Ps: I have a twopence and it was the first old coin in my collection =P
